Hundred Slashes Gather Baleful Intent, the East Window Affair Is Exposed

Looking at the prompt before him, Chen Mu did not hesitate in the slightest. His thoughts raced.

"Begin the deduction immediately!"

[10 points of Karmic Slaughter deducted. Beginning martial art deduction...]

[ Ding! Deduction complete. You have comprehended the Yellow Grade High-Tier martial art "Hundred-Slash Baleful Blade." Proficiency has been fused and retained.]

[Martial Art: Hundred-Slash Baleful Blade · Mastery (1/1000)]

[Karmic Slaughter: 12 → 2]

As his Karmic Slaughter was nearly depleted, a stabbing pain immediately pierced his mind, and a vast flood of saber insights surged in.

Chen Mu gave a muffled groan and pressed a hand to his forehead as he rapidly absorbed them.

The Hundred-Slash Baleful Blade was an entirely new martial art created from nothing.

It had fused the proficiency of the Ox-Slicing Saber Technique and had actually broken through a realm directly!

Novice Insight, Mastery, Perfected Skill, and Peak Perfection—these were the four great realms of martial arts.

Every advancement was incomparably difficult, often requiring more than a decade of bitter practice.

Yet in a single instant, Chen Mu had gained the insights of the Hundred-Slash Saber Art at the Mastery stage.

It took him nearly half a quarter-hour to absorb it all. His mind throbbed as though needles were stabbing into it, and sweat poured from his entire body like a flood.

Yet he had no mind to spare for the pain throughout his body. With a thunderous shout, he grabbed his saber and rushed into the courtyard to practice.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

Saber light flashed like snow. A sharp gleam flared in Chen Mu's eyes as his figure leaped, spun, and darted about, the blade in his hand slicing through the air.

There was no longer any sluggishness in his saber strikes. Every slash carried the roar of wind and thunder.

This newly fused saber art combined the Black Tiger Blade Technique's ferocity and sharpness with the Ox-Slicing Saber Technique's precision and swiftness.

The original seven forms of the Black Tiger Blade Technique had been refined and fused, transforming into a hundred variations.

There was clearly nothing but air before Chen Mu, yet he seemed to see a humanoid phantom.

Every strike from the saber in his hand targeted the vital acupoints, meridians, tendons, bones, and joints of the human body.

This was what "Hundred Slashes" meant—the evolution of the Ox-Slicing Saber Technique's methods.

It treated a human body as a living beast awaiting dissection and dismantling. It was ruthless and strange beyond measure.

As Chen Mu's saber momentum stretched on into an unbroken net, a layer of black mist gradually gathered around his blade.

The black mist was dark, mysterious, and icy. As Chen Mu swung and slashed, it grew ever denser.

At last, when the saber delivered its hundredth slash, a half-inch-wide jet-black saber radiance abruptly bloomed along its edge.

Chen Mu was greatly invigorated. His saber momentum shifted, and he suddenly roared as he swung with all his strength at a bluestone in the courtyard.

Bang!!

The blade struck the waist-thick stone, throwing off only a few sparks before slanting straight down without the slightest obstruction!

The bluestone was actually sliced cleanly in two. A chunk the size of a human head fell away and crashed heavily onto the packed earth of the courtyard.

"So this is the power of Killing Intent?"

Chen Mu was beside himself with delight. He sheathed his saber and crouched down to inspect it.

The cut in the bluestone was smooth as a mirror, while the long saber forged of ordinary iron in his hand did not even have a single nick.

Chen Mu could feel the muscles in his shoulders and arms still spasming.

He had been too deeply immersed in practicing the Hundred-Slash Saber Art just now.

The Blood Essence throughout his body had surged like rivers and seas, allowing him to unleash that flawless, heaven-made strike.

Though his strength had been greatly depleted, Chen Mu's heart was filled with joy.

Because he understood now!

What truly made this saber art worthy of being rated Yellow Grade High-Tier was precisely the words "Gather Baleful Intent."

This saber art had absorbed the Black Tiger Blade Technique's comprehension of the tiger's baleful aura.

As long as he maintained a fierce offensive during battle, he could gather Killing Intent and attach it to his blade.

The might of this Killing Intent was comparable to true qi. Cutting through gold and severing jade as he had just done was nothing unusual.

If it struck a person, it could also inflict Baleful Poison, a wound no medicine could cure.

So long as it left a single cut, it could easily rot a person's limbs down to bare white bone.

Unless one had precious pills for treatment, one could only sever the limb to survive. It was truly vicious to the extreme.

The mere thought made Chen Mu shudder inwardly, only for his excitement to grow even greater afterward.

Worthy indeed of a Yellow Grade High-Tier martial art!

It actually allowed him to possess an offensive method comparable to true qi while still at the Body Tempering stage.

Unfortunately, Killing Intent was not easy to gather. If he could not unleash an unbroken offensive and accumulate the might of a hundred slashes, it would be difficult to use.

But no matter what, it could be considered a great killing move.

Even if he faced a great Martial Master in the Qi Accumulation Realm now, Chen Mu had several chances of victory.

This put him greatly at ease. Seizing the momentum, he casually prepared some meat to replenish himself.

Once his strength had recovered, Chen Mu swallowed another Bone-Strengthening Pill and began practicing his saber art again.

While Chen Mu cultivated in complete absorption, unaware that his name had already been placed upon someone's desk.

At the Red Whale Gang's western district headquarters, the fighting from last night had smashed the doorframe to pieces, and the courtyard was a complete mess.

Inside the Brotherhood Hall, dozens of Martial Masters had gathered.

An elderly man with graying temples sat in the seat of honor at the front, his face dark and gloomy.

He appeared to be over seventy. His skin was dark, his body thin and withered, and his dry palms resembled ghost claws.

"Wonderful! Wonderful! Just look at what you've done?!"

"My dignified Red Whale Gang actually took the blame for some lowly butcher!"

"What are the men below doing? I have a million canal workers contributing money and effort, and all they've raised are useless trash like you?!"

As the old man berated them furiously, the dozens of men below all lowered their heads uneasily, not daring to make a sound.

No one dared to breathe too loudly before this old man, who looked as though a gust of wind could knock him over.

This man was none other than Wei Chen, leader of the Red Whale Gang.

Known in the martial world as the "Ghost-Hand Saber," he had mastered a fierce saber art and also cultivated claw techniques. He was ruthless by nature.

More than a decade ago, he had already filled himself with thirty-six strands of true qi and touched the threshold of the Meridian Opening Realm.

Unfortunately, he was later grievously wounded, leaving his physique withered. He had been only one step away from condensing qi into astral force, yet failed to cross it.

But even so, with the power of thirty-six strands of true qi, he was still one of Everlasting Prosperity Town's foremost experts in the open.

It had been Wei Chen who repelled Zhao Dong last night. Afterward, he had ordered men to investigate and only then learned the full course of the conflict.

That Zhao Dong had actually been led there by a lowly butcher!

The Red Whale Gang had suffered a calamity for no reason at all!

At this thought, Wei Chen's fury erupted. He shouted at a short, sturdy, dark-skinned man below.

"Yan Rong! You have always been responsible for dealing with Ma San. Tell me, what exactly happened?"

"How did Ma San die? And that Ghost Market Waterway Map—are you certain it is in that butcher's hands?"

The man called out was Yan Rong, the hall master in charge of smuggling and selling salt, known as Seventh Master Rong.

He wielded a ghost-headed broadsaber and was an expert at the Body Tempering Fourth Tier, having cultivated a body of Bronze Skin and iron bones.

Hearing the gang leader's question, he immediately stepped before the hall, clasped his fists in salute, and said, "Gang Leader! This matter was quite a coincidence. Yesterday, I was drinking with courtesans at the Red Chamber when I happened to run into several thugs under Ma San."

"At the time, I heard those men drinking and joking behind a screen..."

As he recounted the matter, all the Red Whale Gang experts in the hall came to understand the full story.

Those thugs had been the underlings who followed Ma San to Chen Mu's home to block his door.

They had escaped Chen Mu's attack because they had gone drinking with courtesans.

They let the truth slip over the wine table, mentioning how Chen Mu had joined a martial school and intimidated Ma San into retreating.

Yan Rong and Ma San had never gotten along.

Upon hearing that his rival had suffered a setback, Yan Rong seized those thugs and tortured them. By chance, he learned the truth behind Huang Silang's death.

After Ma San's sudden death, the Red Whale Gang members had further learned that it was Chen Mu who lured Zhao Dong over with his words and framed the Red Whale Gang.

Putting the two together, the answer was ready to leap out!

That butcher surnamed Chen must have diverted the disaster toward them. After committing his crime, he had left behind forged bloody words, hoping to slip free!

As for the Ghost Market Waterway Map, there was no need to think about it. That butcher must have pocketed it as well.

"What a vicious little bastard! This is simply intolerable!"

After hearing this, the crowd flew into a rage. They rose to their feet one after another, clasped their fists, and petitioned Wei Chen.

"Gang Leader, let us send men at once to seize that butcher Chen and flay him alive, to console the brothers killed and wounded last night!"

"That's right! We must also get the Waterway Map! Without this route for smuggled salt, how are we brothers supposed to make our fortune?"